Team

Matthew Schultz and The Pier Group:

The Pier Group is an international collective of artists and builders led by Matthew Schultz, dedicated to creating rich, deep experiences through art and community. Based in Reno NV our team engages volunteers around the act of participation and learning. We believe in giving people of all walks of life the skills and opportunity to build something amazing. The Pier Group is best know for their art at Burning Man including the eponymous Pier in 2011, Pier 2 in 2012 and their monumental dedication to relationships, family, and love, Embrace in 2014. The Space Whale team was a collaboration of over 50 dedicated volunteers, who now hold a piece of this beautiful creation. The Space Whale is an environmental statement, a dedication to nature and science. A testament to the urgent need to preserve our environment. Our distant cetacean cousins sit at the brink of extinction. We are both responsible for their destruction and the only ones who can fix it. It is time to build a new world, one where humans and nature are in balance on a path to the stars.

Android Jones:

Best described as a “digital painter,” Jones has become well known for his many layered, psychedelic works. He participated in the Grateful Dead Fare Thee Well Tour and his work has been projected on the Sydney Opera House and the Empire State Building. Android has traveled the world exhibiting his work and has contributed to events on 6 continents. Describing his work as Electro-Mineralism, Jones attributes his ability to create to the wonders of technology, crediting the planet’s resources for advancements in art production. Manipulating light and energy, Android Jones captures complex concepts while utilizing his formal background in the arts. Jones designed the intricate body of stained glass that covers the mother humpback whale. 3,200 radiant glass panels with over 90,000 individual pieces of glass tell the epic story of the birth of time and matter, the development of life and physics, out to the unknown edge of the universe.

Andy Tibbetts

Andy Tibbetts is a world class fabricator, maker, and artist with a B.S. in structural engineering from Portland State. He has been attending Burning Man and making large scale art since 2004 including Embrace, Clockship Tere, Soma, Chicken and Egg Situation. Professionally, Tibbetts creates art installations for establishments such as The Oregon Zoo and the Ogden City Courthouse.